Memoirous

Readers of this blog know I appreciate Aleksandar Hemon’s writing. I re-read his novels and loved The Book of My Lives —so much so that I recall passages from it at random moments (especially since I live in Uptown where he based some of his observations). He has the peculiar ability to offer a surprising word in a sentence. I owe this to the fact that English is his second language. He uses it to its fullest. His newest volume is non-fiction comprised of flash memoir pieces. The book is divided between memories of his parents, perhaps their memories, and his own thoughts back on his life—including preambles on mortality, writing, and other philosophical meanderings. Early on he riffs on Robert Shields who recorded his life in 5-minute segments, accumulating eventually more than 94 cartons of diaries. It is like always being “on.” It also begs the question: Who cares? This work reflects a kind of Bosnian nostalgia=meaning there is no Yugoslavia. It is a pragmatic look back...

Over the weekend I got hit on my bike-- I'm okay. It was by another cyclist at a 4-way stop. I stopped and he came around me to pass into the intersection as I made a turn left. Definitely it was an accident. As I picked myself up off the pavement (he was able to stay up as he was skirting by; I hit his back wheel and fell) he immediately said: You didn't signal. True, I thought, but you didn't shout out "passing." Then also thinking these things take a while to sort out, I guided my bike over to the curb and out of the intersection. Once off to the side I asked him his name. "Why do you need to know?" Hmm, okay, I thought, this guy's a jerk. He was a middle-aged white guy and I immediately picked up a whiff of privilege. I also surmised he wanted to control the narrative--even though the only thing I'd said so far was to ask his name. "Are you okay?" I knew he wanted me to be okay so he could keep going and get on with his da...

I need to start this entry with an admission: I have not read a single Ann Patchett book. I have heard her name come up in literary circles for over a decade and it is “on my list.” FredShafer uses her material in his workshops at  OCWW , but I just haven’t gotten around to reading Bel Canto, The Commonwealth, and—now, The Dutch House. I moonlight At Wilson Abbey an event space and especially show up for book events put on by The Book Cellar and Women and Children First, as well as book launches held there. As much as I’ve decried buying more books, I am packing out my shelves more than ever. Back to Ann Patchett who had a Chicago appearance to support The Dutch House at Wilson Abbey last week. I wanted to hear this woman that everyone talks about so glowingly. There were 350 people in the auditorium. I stood in the back. When she came on at exactly 7 pm she apologized for being late??? Then told us that she’d missed an earlier flight and had to take the next one out o...

Okay, maybe it was the wedding. Last week my daughter got married, but, seriously folks, I have not gotten a lot done these past few months. When all else fails, blame it on T-rump. I owe people I love, fabulous writers, reviews of their books. There is flash articles queued up inside my head to be written. I’m also working on a sudden book—a manuscript that has lain dormant for a while and perked up suddenly asking to come to life. Then there is the other bits of life such as relationships that needed attention. Coffee conversations, birthday, etc etc. The etc is what has crowded in lately, usurping the plan. The pan being to be on top of things. Which is always going to get inconveniently interrupted. Then there’s the constant computer card playing, checking Facebook, commenting on stranger’s posts, ugh! The impeachment. The messing around before buckling down to put words on the page. I promise to be better. As I drift off to favorites: Pinterest, crazyguyona...

Sorry MIA--crazy last coupla weeks-- daughter got married the house was full now--       empty should I write a poem about white roses? NEW WORK will be up soon at  The Blue Pages Journal  http://bluepagesjournal.blogspot.com/ which accepted a weird piece, a flash series called Tiny, Little Horrors about intersectional moments flash memories of being suddenly scared or grossed out and how those memories have never left me--or left me scarred.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1974670597 https://tinyurl.com/m4eg5jf

Crossing Pajtim Statovci Translated by David Hackston Pantheon Books, New York, 2019 I like to think of myself as a fairly astute and close reader: I literally did not see the ending of this book coming. But once I read it I understood and wanted to immediately begin reading it again. Let me start at the beginning: Albania, a place so foreign and exotic that there is no category for it. It is a land that has been trampled over and over by foreign invaders and then largely left alone. Their language is quite like nowhere else. We traveled to Albania via a tourist bus from the small country of Montenegro. In Tirana we slipped away from the tour group. We had a contact of a diplomat, an attaché staying in the capital. Little did we know the little we knew. Albania had just emerged from a repressive regime on the scale of North Korea. Under their version of Kim Jong-un, Enver Hoxha erected a series of bunkers—in case the West invaded. They only wished. Albania was a...